This Tuesday morning we gathered senior leaders from across the film and events industries to discuss behaviour in a session sponsored by The Richmond Communication Directors’ Forum and led by Lea Karam, Consulting Director at Behave, Total Media. Our guests arrived at our venue partner, etc. venues on Chancery Lane and were greeted with a delicious continental breakfast that included fresh smoothies and miniature pastries. After some morning networking, they sat down in the aptly named Collaboration Room to talk audiences, technology and the younger generation.
Understanding audience behaviour impacts how you communicate with them, whether you are trying to raise awareness or sell to them, says Lea. And this goes from the big-picture strategy to the very granular, for example deciding whether or not to capitalise letters. Introverted audiences and extroverted audiences want to be spoken to in different ways. Some audiences are excited by the idea of big change whilst others are intimidated by it.
With so much content, users can experience decision paralysis. When they do decide what to watch, they can end up engaging with it less meaningfully. Lea said, “There is already too much content, so it’s vital you create content that cuts through. Take personal interests like art, experiences, sports. Build what resonates to whom it resonates with. It’s a human truth”.
She underlines the importance of looking at your target audience, making content that appeals to them and putting it on the right platform. Why are you speaking to them? Why do you need them? These are questions she recommends keeping front of mind. Using technology and behaviour science together, says Lea, is the key to helping you find, and understand, your audience. She recommends exploring the possibilities of predictive AI (rather than generative) and seeing how it can be used to predict insights.
With so much competition, does all content need to be kept as short as possible, asks one of the attendees. Not at all, says Lea. But when it comes to longform, you need to make sure the content is cut-through, different, original. And then you need to make sure your target audience can find it. Distribution is almost as important as content.
Our attendees discuss how these different audiences can be catered to in live events. Diversity of thought is important, says Lea, so she doesn’t recommend segmenting everyone at all times. However, she does say that breakout rooms are essential and need to be designed to empower different demographics and give people psychological safety to perform as their best selves.
Our guests ask Lea to shed insight into engaging with Gen Z, and she talks about the ‘spotlight effect’ as well as the sense of community many young people have through social media. Gen Z aren’t anti-work, she says. They are anti meaningless work, so employers need to make sure that they feel the work they are doing is meaningful and that they are empowered within it.
Thanks so much to Lea for sharing her insight with our members and generating conversation between them. It was a fascinating session, and we hope you enjoyed it!